The present invention relates to a bobbin transporting system, and more particularly to a system for transporting spinning bobbins produced by spinning frames and empty bobbins discharged from a winder and returned to the spinning frames which are connected to the winder.
A spinning frame, especially a ring spinning frame, is normally constituted such that a number of fine spinning spindles are arranged in rows along a longitudinal direction on opposite sides of a machine stand of the spinning frame. In such a spinning frame, a transport band is mounted for circulation along each of the spindle rows so that spinning bobbins doffed may be automatically fitted onto pegs on the transport band and as the transport band is circulated, they may be dropped and delivered, at an end portion of the transport band, into a bobbin box located on one side of the transport band. The bobbin box filled with spinning bobbins is transported to the winder side by means of a bogie truck, a conveyor or the like and is supplied at a suitable time to an automatic spinning bobbin supplying device of the winder. In other words, a spinning frame and a winder are not directly connected to each other, and hence spinning bobbins are supplied in a batch to the winder by way of a bobbin box.
While such a transporting system is suitable for production of yarns of a same type in a large quantity, but since spinning bobbins are contained at random in a box and are transported in this condition, the system is disadvantageous in that a surface of a yarn layer is damaged in configuration, hairiness is produced in a large quantity, and so on.
Meanwhile, distinct from the transporting system, a fine spinning winder in which a spinning frame and a winder is directly connected to each other by means of a bobbin transporting path is proposed and run as a system which is suitable for production of a number of types of products in small quantities. In particular, in one type, spinning bobbins delivered from a transport band of a spinning frame are directly transported to a winder by means of a conveyor belt, while in another type, spinning bobbins are directly supplied to a spinning bobbin supplying device of a winder from an end of a transport band. In this way, a spinning frame and a winder are directly interconnected on line by a belt conveyor or the like.
In such a case, a problem is that a yarn processing capacity of a winder must be balanced with a supplying capacity of spinning bobbins delivered from a spinning frame connected to the winder. In particular, if the spinning bobbin delivering speed of the spinning frame side is lower than the bobbin consuming speed of the winder, a waiting time will appear to the winder. Particularly where a winder having a high speed winding feature is installed for an already installed spinning frame, the problem described just above will rise readily.
A requirement for a system for automatically transporting bobbins between a spinning frame and a winder to operate efficiently is that a capacity of the spinning frame to produce yarns is balanced with a facility of the winder to work yarns, or in other words, when each machine is operated without any trouble, spinning bobbins are supplied to the winder while empty bobbins are returned to the spinning frame without any waiting time caused in the spinning frame or the winder.
Generally, a yarn production speed of a spinning frame is lower than a rewinding speed of a winder so that, if a spinning frame having 400 spindles is provided for a winder having 10 spindles, then the production speeds of them may match to each other.
Accordingly, it may be appropriate to connect the winder having 10 spindles directly to the spinning frame having 400 spindles. However, in a factory in which a number of spinning frames are installed, winders must also be installed by a corresponding large number, and a driving source, a yarn end finder and so on must necessarily be provided for each of the winders. Thus, such a system is uneconomical.
Accordingly, it is common to provide a plurality of spinning frames for a winder. For example, four spinning frames each having 400 spindles are connected to a winder having 40 spindles by means of an automatic transporting path such that spinning bobbins produced on the spinning frames are supplied to the single winder while empty bobbins discharged from the winder are distributed and returned to the plurality of spinning frames.
Meanwhile, another system is provided wherein means for transporting spinning bobbins doffed by spinning frames includes a transport band which extends and is circulated along the spinning frames and has thereon pegs on which spinning bobbins are fitted, whereby the transport band is circulated intermittently and spinning bobbins are transferred onto a spinning bobbin transporting conveyor from a forward end of the spinning frames while empty bobbins are supplied onto empty pegs of the transport band at a rearward end of the spinning bobbins so as to allow discharging of spinning bobbins from the transport band and fitting of empty bobbins onto the transport band to be effected during circulation of the transport band in one direction. In this case, supply of a spinning bobbin to the winder and return of an empty bobbin to the spinning frames correspond to and is balanced with other. Thus, there is no problem to this method.
In the meantime, there is another arrangement which is similar in that spinning bobbins on the spinning frame side are transported by means of a transport band but wherein a position at which empty bobbins are supplied onto the transport band is on the same side with the spinning bobbin delivering side.
For example, an arrangement as disclosed in Japanese Publication Pat. No. 43-29208 is of a type wherein a conveyor belt extending along spinning frames is circulated back and forth such that after spinning bobbins have been discharged from the belt at an end portion thereof, the belt is circulated reversely while empty bobbins are supplied onto the belt in this intermittent circulating movement of the belt. In this arrangement, while spinning bobbins are being discharged, empty bobbins returned from a winder cannot be supplied onto the belt. Accordingly, it is necessary to provide an empty bobbin stock device intermediate an empty bobbin returning path. In order to store empty bobbins for one spinning frame, for example, up to 200 empty bobbins for one side of the spinning frame having 400 spindles as in the example above, a large stock space is required. Besides, since each empty bobbin has a somewhat tapered configuration in order to facilitate releasing of a yarn therefrom, if such empty bobbins are stored in a large quantity, then they may be oriented in different directions. This makes it very disadvantageous to design an automatic transporting system.